Christopher Newport's defense took out some Maryville frustrations on Methodist College on Saturday afternoon at Pomoco Stadium, but the Monarchs' red-zone decision-making actually aided the Captains.

CNU's 21-0 victory was its sixth straight and kept the Captains (6-1, 4-0 USA South) tied with Averett atop the conference standings. The 19th-ranked Captains, coming off a 48-31 win at Maryville (Tenn.), held Methodist to 139 yards of offense.

"All week we were pretty upset about the 31 points we gave up at Maryville," said CNU captain Rob Rodriguez, a senior defensive back. "We just came out to prove a point. We had to regroup and get back to the basics, and that's pretty much what we did."

Methodist tailback Mike Hill came in leading the USA South in rushing at 119.8 yards per game. The Captains held him to 53 yards on 17 attempts, and they held freshman quarterback Brandon Parks to 11-of-28 passing for 104 yards with one interception.

"They could not block us," CNU coach Matt Kelchner said. "Great job by the defensive coaches and our defensive guys. We had two or three different (defensive) packages set up for this and just put it to them."

Rodriguez had an interception late to set up CNU's third touchdown as well as a blocked punt, two pass breakups and two tackles. Defensive end DeShaun Parker had two sacks for CNU, and middle linebacker Thomas Horan was in on a team high seven tackles.

Linebacker Chris Cappa tipped a Methodist pass in the end zone as part of a productive day.

"Our D-line stepped up in a huge way," Cappa said. "They found themselves, they got fired up and they had a goal and they achieved it. I've got to commend them, because I didn't have a lineman on me all day.

"And that's a big part of our defensive scheme is that our d-linemen are not only supposed to make plays, but they're also supposed to keep the linemen off the linebackers."

While the defense was holding Methodist in check, CNU's offense took a while to start scoring. Tailback Roland Hilliard rushed for 125 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown, and quarterback Todd Faison completed 18 of 25 passes for 251 yards and one touchdown, with one interception.

"Basically we were executing our assignments, but we just had a few miscues," Faison said. "We kept our heads up and relied on defense, like we do every game. Then we finally got going."

CNU turned the ball over on each of its first three possessions before scoring late in the third quarter on Hilliard's 11-yard run up the middle. Captains linebacker Maynard Henry recovered a Methodist fumble early in the third quarter to set up a 50-yard drive.

Faison connected with Curfew Speight for a 39-yard completion, and Hilliard ran for two yards before Faison hit George Jones in the left corner for a 9-yard touchdown pass.

Methodist (3-4, 1-3) got to CNU's 11-, 13- and 6-yard lines on three of its next four possessions. Each time, coach Jim Sypult went for it on fourth down rather than attempting a field goal, and twice pass plays were broken up. The other drive ended in a completed pass that fell short of a first down.

"We could've kicked field goals, but I watched the field-goal kicker before the game and I didn't even feel like ... nah, I wasn't going to do that," Sypult said.

"I was going to give our kids a chance to win. I didn't know how many opportunities we were going to get to be down there again."